Mission Prep Classic begins. Tourney hosts future NBA stars
The annual Mission Prep Basketball Classic — a tournament that has hosted the likes of NBA players James Harden, Brook Lopez, Demar Derozan, Jeremy Lin, and Jrue Holiday in their high school days — is underway with high quality high school basketball from teams as far away as Seattle and Florida, as well as Mission Prep and St. Joseph.
Bishop Montgomery, a Top 25 team according to Los Angeles Times rankings, opened with a 65-35 victory over Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa.
In the following game, Mission Prep fell to Saugus (of Santa Clarita) 62-45 as part of the four-day tournament that continues through Tuesday, among a full slate of games held Saturday.
The Royals (5-3, 2-0 Mountain League) figure to be one of the better San Luis Obispo County teams this season.
Mission Prep players and Coach Terrance Harris said the competition is a good test for the program and to help the squad prepare for the league play and the postseason.
Mission Prep was led by J.J. Howard, who scored their first 10 points of the game for the Royals and 23 total on the evening. Howard stuffed a Saugus player on a spectacular block in the first quarter — one of his three rejections in the contest.
Howard also threw down a massive dunk on a fast break in the first half, sending the gym into a frenzy.
“We’re getting better team chemistry with our starting five and even our bench players,” Howard said. “But we just need to work on executing our plays because we have multiple quarters where we just can’t score enough. So as a team, we just need to work on that with chemistry. But we always have those spurts of quarters that we play really well together.”
First half offense
After the first quarter, the Royals were down 13-10, after missing some open looks at the 3-point line.
Harris urged his players to “move” to open space against the Centurions’ trap defense that tried to force turnovers against the Royals with some success.
“One of the things that happens sometimes when the other team goes on a little run and we try and do it ourselves a little bit offensively,” Harris said. “And we just need to mature as a team and understand how to fight back from deficits. We have to understand that when the going gets tough, it’s time for us to get together instead of doing it on our own.”
In the second quarter, the Royals avoided turnovers and fought back with Howard, a junior, draining a high leaping mid-range jumper to go up 21-15 with five minutes to go in the second quarter.
The Royals led 28-26 at the half, Howard leading all scorers with 14.
“(Howard) is a kid that can play on both ends of the ball,” Harris said. “You saw him start to today’s game with a couple of block shots. He’s just understanding how to maintain that aggressiveness and help his teammates get the looks when they’re doubling and tripling him and making them pay.”
Second half struggles
In the second half, Saugus swarmed Howard and the Royals had a bit of trouble getting their offense going in the third quarter, going down 42-35 going into the fourth.
And then Saugus pulled away, going up by more than 20 in the final eight minutes, as the Royals missed on several 3-point attempts and struggled against the Centurions pressure.
“We always have those spurts of quarters that we play really well together,” Howard said. “And that’s what we just need to do the whole game.”
Grant Callahan had nine points for the Royals and Wyatt Maulhardt had six, with Landen Smith draining a 3-pointer, and Jude Callahan had two.
“I feel like we’re doing pretty good,” Grant Callahan said. “We have things to work on. We’re improving every game. In this one, I was crumbled a little bit, but we’ll be back next time.”
Tournament heats up
Mission Prep faces Seattle Prep, which fell 51-49 to Sagemont of Florida, in its next matchup in the tournament.
Seattle Prep was the 2019 winner of the Christmas Classic, which was canceled last year due to COVID-19 impacts.
Atascadero was scheduled to play in the tournament this season, but withdrew before their first scheduled game due to COVID-19 safety protocols.
The other Central Coast team in the tournament, St, Joseph of Santa Maria, beat Independence of Bakersfield 61-49, and remains undefeated on the season, with a 7-0 record.
“It’s good basketball for the community to get to see,” Harris said. “It’s also good for our kids to see and understand what it takes to achieve at a high level.”
A dunk contest took place to end the first night of action.
For more information about the tournament, and remaining matchups, go to mpchristmasclassic.com.
This story was originally published December 18, 2021 at 9:16 PM.
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